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He has been something else this year. Fangraphs had a pretty interesting write up on him earlier this year about how he is using his slider a lot more often this year. He was absolutely dominant for 5 IP (9 ks on like 65 pitches) in his last start before unraveling in the 6th.

Yeah, that's my take as well. The runner was on the grass, but he wasn't trying to interfere, he was just running.

It's academic at this point. Watching the AL West from SoCal, I've seen Darvish a bunch. I can't recall seeing him quite so visibly frustrated. I've never seen him call for the ball the way he did after that last walk.

Inside-the-parker for Aaron Hicks. On the previous play Gary Sanchez got a double on a hard hit ball the Detroit right fielder ducked on at the wall after apparently losing it in the lights, clouds, or twilight. 2-0. Hicks HR bounced hard off the concrete bottom of the wall and must have gone 75+ feet from the CFer. No idea where the LFer was, he didn't seem to be in camera range.

Question: has MLB sent an edict down that check swings should be ruled no swing more often for some reason? I feel like the vast majority of check swing appeals I have seen this year have been ruled no swing even in situations where it looked like a clear swing to me.

Question: has MLB sent an edict down that check swings should be ruled no swing more often for some reason? I feel like the vast majority of check swing appeals I have seen this year have been ruled no swing even in situations where it looked like a clear swing to me.

Tough to say. I've always felt the opposite, that too many strikes are called on pitches where a batter was just leaning into a pitch and checking his swing in plenty of time.** But then I'm just so sick of strikeouts that I'm getting to the point where I wish checked swings would be called by some sort of a batter's honor rule.

** Kind of the opposite with bunt attempts where a batter races across the plate, then pulls back his bat and gets a ball call. AFAIC breaking the plane of the plate with your entire body should be automatically counted as a strike, even if you drop your bat in the dirt behind you.

That was weird. I’m glad it stood simply because Jones stopped playing and Mookie “played the whistle” as it were. If Jones kept running, hell if he was running hard the whole way he would have cruised into second.

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but after seeing Yadier get off to a hot start again, I'm wondering what is the normal progression of performance as the season goes along, relative to number of games played. I genuinely think that catching usage is absolutely something that needs to be researched... I think the ultimate conclusion, and something that we'll see as semi-normal, is that teams will have two everyday catchers and alternate them, as the data is going to indicate that a catcher needs more time off than anybody else..... I think this season might end up being the first data point in that, in that it's not going to surprise me to see that those extra four days of rest this season is going to help catchers more than other positions.

Cfb I’m pretty sure the research is done and yeah, catchers fade as the season goes on. I can’t tell you where I’ve seen it but I have recollection of seeing such things relative to Posada and Varitek in the naughties.

It’s one of the reason I find concerns about “blocking” a catching prospect less than troubling. Even the backup catcher is likely to start 30-40 games so having a good second catcher isn’t a problem. Obviously ths is reoevant to the Cards with Kelly and I 5ink you have another catching prospect too don’t you?

Yes, the Cardinals have two well regarded catching prospects, both of which are major league ready(and the same age).

I've seen some research on catchers wearing down, but from my memory, most of them were too linear. In other words they didn't look at consecutive games played and the breakdown as the player plays on consecutive days.(just number of games played or numbers going down monthly etc) Yadier is good for about 5-7 days after just one day off, but then it becomes pretty obvious he starts to struggle. It seems to me to be a pretty obvious thing, and the managers seem to know this for the most part, but I would like to see the information be formalized to use to convince Yadier and others that they need time off.

Still a pretty high success rate, though, given the relatively small size of the sample (less than 10% of a season) and then a coin-flip (prior to '69) to be WS winner. Would suggest a good success rate (35-40%, maybe higher) for making the playoffs.